E1M8: The Heretic Prevails (Sold Soul)

E1M8: The Heretic Prevails is the eighth and final map of Sold Soul. It was designed by Fryuko and uses the music track "Inferno" from .

Essentials
You start in a round room with four sabreclaws. Head west to find two golem ghosts protecting a Silver Shield and an Ethereal Crossbow, then east to find three followers of D'Sparil guarding a Dragon Claw; taking both weapons will cause an iron lich to teleport to the starting room, and you must destroy it to lower the north wall and reveal a way out. Open the door hidden behind this wall to confront an undead warrior and a couple of weredragons, then head west to a water pool to find disciples of D'Sparil guarding a Hellstaff and east to a lava pool to find ophidians guarding a Phoenix Rod; as before, you must collect both weapons to summon a chaos serpent then kill it to open the way forward. Kill the undead warrior ghosts that are released then head north past some nitrogolems into the main arena.

You will see a large red trident on the floor - collect the Lightbringer on its middle point to summon two maulotaurs and a pack of sabreclaws, then kill both maulotaurs to lower the east and west walls revealing a pack of chaos serpents and weredragons. After a number of seconds the Beast of the Betrayer will teleport in - this monster uses a variety of attacks including fireballs, overhead meteors, lines of fire and bombs that spray projectiles in all directions. Unload everything you have into the Beast until it dies, then head through the doors that open at the north end and enter the purple skull portal to finish the episode.

Secrets

 * 1) Head west from the start and use the bookcase behind the Silver Shield to get an Enchanted Shield. (sector 89)
 * 2) In the lava area with the Phoenix Rod, run through the lavafall at the south end to get a Mystic Urn. (sector 167)

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The (absence of) data was last verified in its entirety on December 16, 2021.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: